Dilkens certain Grand Prix investment is money well spent

The city of Windsor makes an annual $50 investment in the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens believes the access it gives the city to its tourism target market is well worth it.

The Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island booth had barely opened at the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix when an American fellow in town for the race sought information about Pelee Island.

By the time they were done the friendly folks from Windsor helped him book a Saturday trek to the island.

It’s those sorts of things that make city officials confident that the $50,000 they invested in the race in each of the past seven years is paying dividends for our region.

The City of Windsor sponsors the media centre, and the first thing the 700 credentialed media from around the globe here covering the race saw was the Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island booth situated directly inside the main entrance.

Grandstand No. 2 — according to race fans one of the best viewing spots on the racetrack with its access to Turns 1 and 2 and the pit area — is the city of Windsor grandstand. Anyone purchasing the special Windsor ticket package for the grand prix gets priority seating here.

David Letterman, here for the Grand Prix, dined in Windsor on Friday. That was front-page news.

“Letterman is one that we know but there are probably thousands of other people who come to Windsor as part of this event,” Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said Sunday. “There are people who stay in hotels in the city of Windsor as part of this event.”

Members of Letterman’s race team confirmed that they have stayed in Windsor for Grand Prix events.

The Grand Prix crowd consists of people most likely to visit our town on a vacation or a weekend getaway.

“You have to give them plenty of reasons to come visit,” said Gordon Orr, CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island. “It helps remind them that Windsor is right across the border.”

Don’t we want to do what we can to convince them that we’ve got something they need to see?

“The target market, the audience that is drawn to this event, is completely in the target market of people that we’re trying to attract to the city of Windsor,” Dilkens said. “These are the people who are within a couple hours drive, for the most part, who will have the opportunity to come over to the city of Windsor.

Luring tourists to town is only part of why Dilkens believes that our $50,000 — Canadian funds, by the way — is a worthwhile investment.

“Those are the direct things that you see here,” Dilkens said. “The things that you don’t see, that the public wouldn’t see, is the access that we get to events behind the scenes with people like (race organizers) Roger Penske and Bud Denker and people who are movers and shakers in the city of Detroit.

“There are many things that they’re doing that we would like to emulate and learn best practices. Even though I’m the mayor of a city, it’s difficult to get those guys on the phone. You only get to meet them when you’re part of the package. This puts us in there and gets us in the game.”

Dilkens doesn’t get why more Windsorites don’t embrace the unique scenario we find ourselves in situated directly across the border from a major international city that’s home to world-class events like this.

“One of the beauties of living in a city like Windsor, a kind of a small-town feel city, is you have access to all of these events over here in Detroit and this plugs us in directly,” Dilkens said. “This isn’t just ‘Hey, this event is coming to Detroit. You have the ability to go.’

“We’re working on creating the packages and the transportation system to allow people who live in the Windsor area to come to this type of event in a very seamless way.”

You’ll never be able to quantify specifically on a spreadsheet what Windsor gets from its Grand Prix investment, but city officials continue to invest because they want the city to be a player on a bigger scale.

“We know an event like this and the level of sponsorship we provide is very small for the value we believe we get,” Dilkens said. “Whether it was the Super Bowl or WWE or any of the other big events that come through Detroit, we try and tap into those events because there’s value to being part of those programs and the spinoff effect that helps support the city of Windsor businesses.

“At the end of the day, this is all about supporting city restaurants and city hotels and bringing people to our community who are going to spend money in the city of Windsor.”

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